title: Mediodorsal thalamic lesions and Pavlovian conditioning of heart rate and eyeblink responses in the rabbit.
abstract: Rabbits received ibotenic acid lesions of the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (MD) or sham lesions. These animals were compared on 4 sessions of Pavlovian eyeblink and heart rate conditioning, in which a tone was the conditioned stimulus and a paraorbital electrical shock was the unconditioned stimulus. Lesions of MD retarded acquisition of the eyeblink conditioned response and abolished the late-occurring tachycardiac component of the heart rate conditioned response. The data are compatible with previous experiments suggesting that MD participates in the sympathetic control associated with somatomotor learning.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Laboratory, William Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Administration Medical Center, Columbia, South Carolina 29201.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D011817:Rabbits; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000502:physiology*